Quantum theory and the miracle of the Eucharist, walking between science and faith in the company of Niel Bohr and St. Thomas Aquinas

Father Gabriele
- Church news -

THE QUANTUM THEORY AND THE MIRACLE OF THE EUCHARIST, WALKING BETWEEN SCIENCE AND FAITH IN THE COMPANY OF NIEL BOHR AND SAN TOMMASO D’AQUINO

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God is the God who enters into relationship with us and who listens to us, he sees us, scrutinizes us, it tastes us and touches us. What this happens for us through the miracle of the altar, also called miracle of miracles: the Most Holy Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ is present in the body, blood, soul and divinity. And if it is really present, substantially and truly, in his Eucharistic moment he enters into a relationship with us.

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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A few days ago, while I was preparing articles, a friend introduced a new discussion on an ancient theme, but always full of reflections: science and faith. I have already spoken about it at various times with reference to the topic of vaccines. My friend gave me a nice article written by the Jesuit Paolo Beltrame the 4 March and titled: If the quanta shed light on theology. Featured on La Civiltà Cattolica with the title Maybe God plays dice?

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I was very pleased read this article, which also reminded me of my university years when I too studied the subject of philosophy of science for about a year, studying the beautiful text of Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, to then study quantum theory in depth, although he did not go into mathematical terminology [N.d.R. Before joining the Order of Friars Preachers, Father Gabriel attended the degree courses in philosophy at the University of Rome La Sapienzaa]. The Jesuit Paolo Beltrame offers a reflection-bridge between quantum theory and Trinitarian theology. I leave you the full reading of the article which does not require excessive skills in either physics or philosophy.

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This quote struck me in the article attributed to the Danish physicist Niehl's Bohr Nobel Prize in 1922 for studies on the atom, who said:

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«[…] the phenomena exist as observed and as they enter into a relationship with the measurement apparatus ".

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Perhaps it will seem far from our perspective. Perhaps it will seem like a philosophical concept. But in fact this is also a fact of ordinary experience. Whenever we know something, from knowing the amount of money to pay at the supermarket to get groceries, at the times of Holy Masses, then coming to the great life choices, how to know if we can trust that person or not, there is always a relationship between us and the known object. The known object closes itself to us because it is observed by our senses that measure it. It becomes evident to us and to all who observe and measure it. Of course, not all reality is a measurable and calculable phenomenon. Man is not a mere meter. But the whole reality is still studied, learned, including because it is related to us. St. Thomas Aquinas said that then the truth of a certain datum is an adjustment between the mind that knows that datum and the datum itself, that is, adjustment between the intellect and reality.

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Because therefore I feel I can share the thoughts of Father Paolo Beltrame about the links of this theory with theology and faith? In fact, the Jesuit writes that the whole Trinity is relationship. A Classical Doctrine for Scholastic Theology:

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«The Trinity is relationship in itself, relationship with the universe, and relationship with all living beings, sentient or not ".

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This also opens up our way of faith and prayer. God is the God who enters into relationship with us and who listens to us, he sees us, scrutinizes us, it tastes us and touches us. What this happens for us through the miracle of the altar, also called miracle of miracles: the Most Holy Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ is present in the body, blood, soul and divinity. And if it is really present, substantially and truly, in his Eucharistic moment he enters into a relationship with us.

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Think also of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when Jesus is present in Person Christi in the priest and says at that moment «Take and eat […] take and drink ". And when we take on the Eucharistic species, to touch us first, relationally, is Christ God. While little by little we are transformed into Him.

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Let's think about moments of doubt and darkness for which some great miracles have brought priests and faithful back to the Eucharistic faith, as the Eucharistic miracle of Bolsena, which is by no means "presumed" and "reproducible in the laboratory", as yesterday our Father Ariel S denied with pain and embarrassment. Levi di Gualdo in a note - yes we Fathers of The Island of Patmos fully shared - replying to an unfortunate post published by a priest from Palermo on Facebook. It's still: think of Eucharistic adoration, how silent, majestic and tremendous is the God Christ who is there to listen to us. It is we who enter his sacramental "field of vision". We can give him all our fears, all our hopes, all our dreams. We can rest them on his Eucharistic heart, his Sacred Heart and He listens to us in His Silence.

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Perhaps we had never thought about all this. But ultimately Lent is also a deepening and a return to these certainties of faith. Let's take advantage of it to rediscover these treasures of faith, thanking both Bohr and Aquinas for helping us rediscover the beauty of the relational uniqueness between God and the miracle of miracles: the Most Holy Eucharist, which is a miracle of "Christ's reality", not "alleged miracle".

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Rome, 8 March 2021

John of God, Saint of Charity

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3 replies
  1. Iginio
    Iginio says:

    However, I would not like Bohr's sentence to be on the one hand a critique of positivism – and therefore positive, since it clarifies how Science does not exist outside of man – but on the other, an effect of Kant's philosophy with the distinction between a knowable phenomenon and an unknowable noumenon.

  2. Andrea
    Andrea says:

    Dear Father Giordano

    I would like to point out to you and to interested readers the texts of the Benedictine Stanley Jaki, university professor of physics and theologian (God and the cosmologists, The savior of science, Christ and science and others).
    They are frankly demanding to read but they are certainly worth it. On Bohr it seems to me that he had a very critical judgment but I would not be wrong, e’ I haven't read it for a long time…

  3. David Maria Caprano
    David Maria Caprano says:

    Science always lags behind faith and explains only how and not why!
    What the quantum theory on electrons says was already explained to us by the priest in elementary school: God is in heaven and on earth and everywhere at the same time.

Comments are closed.